Player: JL Skinner III
School: Boise State
Measurables:
- Height: 6’4”(NFL Combine)
- Weight: 209(NFL Combine)
- 40: DNP
- 10 Yard Split: DNP
- Bench: DNP
- Vertical Jump: DNP
- Broad Jump: DNP
- 3 Cone: DNP
- 20 Yard Shuttle: DNP
- Other Notes: Skinner tore his pec right before the combine. Unfortunately, his stock is probably trending down. He could end up being a steal on day 3 now though.
Graded Position Specific Traits:
- Field Vision: 5.75/10
- Range: 4.75/10
- In-The-Box Zone Coverage: 6.5/10
- Deep Zone Coverage: 4.5/10
- Tackling: 6/10
- Man Coverage: 6/10
- Run Support: 7/10
Prospect Grade: 40.5/70; 57.9%- Great backup and potential role player. Personally, I would like to see him sit and develop for about a year before getting a chance to start.
Projected Draft Day: Late Round 2- Early Round 5(Based on tape, will fall due to injury)
Player Comparison: Virginia Tech Kam Chancellor
Player Summary:
JL Skinner is a prospect I was extremely excited to watch when I found out how big he was. I mean the last time I feel like we saw a safety that big was Bam Bam Kam. When you put on a highlight reel for Skinner you can see flashes of Legion of Boom Kam. However, when you turn on game tape of Skinner you don’t see the flashes as often as you may hope; however he looks like Kam coming out of college. He’s essentially a flashy player with a pretty major lack of consistency.
When I first turned the tape on, Skinner was an extremely downhill type of player, which got him in trouble a few times against the pass. As you continue to watch the tape though you begin to realize that despite the thought that he is a box player, he doesn’t mind playing in space and makes the run/pass reads without jumping run too quick. I will say though a lot of the time when he flashed he was getting downhill. His tackling definitely seemed better when he got downhill than in space.
In space, I worry about his speed. He doesn’t look that slow, but he doesn’t look fast. It’s probably right around average at best. He looks good in coverage, but when breaking with routes in zone or man you can tell he’s just like a step behind, which tells me he does not have play from behind speed. Although he’s not bad in coverage. He seemed pretty good while playing zone in the box as well as in man. My worry about Skinner in man is whether he has the speed to cover those athletic TEs(Kelce, Waller, Pitts, etc). When he was asked to play the deep zone he looked like he was kind of out of place.
Skinner looked like he had relatively good vision. I think I watched more Skinner tape than I did any other prospect. The reason was because I was having trouble getting a good understanding of Skinner as a prospect. One of the games I watched was Boise vs Air Force. You may be wondering why does this matter? Air Force just like all the other military academies, runs triple option. When you are playing against the triple option, you need to have extreme discipline, especially in your eyes. Skinner had solid discipline in that game, which I think is pretty important to note.
The final note I have on Skinner is that he played in the box a ton, and I believe was even lined up at LB at times, and actually didn’t look that bad. Skinner is a pretty raw prospect who I believe with the right coaching could develop into a superstar. If someone could clean up his game with his size, opposing offenses will lose sleep over this guy. In my mind, look out for Seattle on late day two/early day three to take a chance on this kid. They took a chance on Tariq Woolen last year and were able to clean up Woolen’s game. I wouldn’t be shocked if they do it again this year.
UPDATE 3/11:
Skinner tore his pec right before the combine. His draft projection will stay as is because it’s hard to tell how far the injury will drop him.